RE ADDING EFFEXOR XR WHILE TAPERING EFFEXOR XR

I had similar symptoms. Started tapering from 150 down to 75. I was fine for two months, just a little sensitivity like you. Then decided to taper to 37.5. 3 days later I was in hell. Constant severe anxiety, depression spells, couldn't eat, sleep, work, or distract myself with anything. The physical and mental symptoms were unbearable. After a couple of days my doctor upped me back to 75mg and I had hope again but it wasn't better at all. Maybe even worse.
I gave up hope and thought I would have to hospitalize myself or I would do something to myself.
But then my doctor upped me back to my usual 150mg and gave me 1mg of clonazepam a day. Two days later I felt free. I was back to my happy self, I could work, my appetite came back and I was sleeping through the night.
My point is, maybe if you go back to 150 mg you'll feel okay again.
There is hope. I wish you strength and patience, we all need it in this process.

After fifteen years of 450mg of Effexor/Venlafaxine daily,
a four month titration and more research than ( I am willing to bet my life) 99% of all providers do, I believe this drug should never have been approved and should be taken of the market.

A good marketing campaign does not necessarily make for a good product.

There are other effective, less poisonous options available.

The only antidepressants I would consider giving my are children are:

Exercise
Good Nutrition
Sufficient Sleep

In an emergency I would consider Wellbutrin for short term relief coupled with psychotherapy.

For manic episodes Latuda seems to be the least harmful.

I often say this is my opinion only. But that’s not true. All the information I have is from my own experience, yes , but more importantly from the leading unbiased institutions in the world.

Pharmaceuticals companies are in the business of making money and the FDA is a political institution,

How else do we get medications that may or may not work, cause devastating side effects and come with a “black box” that states “ my cause suicidal thoughts or actions”.

I have been an uninformed lab rate and profit center for pharmaceutical companies.

Okay, it happened to me and my generation but not to my children.

I hope everyone, including me, find the peace we all deserve.

I so totally agree with you! Effexor XR is what I was prescribed and took for way too many years, resulting in horrid hallucinations and extremely noxious nightmares. Made my life pure hell since I was sleep deprived, wracked with anxiety and exhaustion, but still having to start teaching high school classes commencing at 7:32 am...I really started to believe that there WERE demons in my bedroom, and felt the compression of the mattress when one would sit and reach to get me. I told my then-primary who had prescribed it, but she said that I had to give my system time "to adjust to it." I shared with the neurologist at that time in my medical journey, and she was dismissive....so I sought help elsewhere (a compassionate neurologist) who worked out a complicated schedule for weaning off the drug. Took MONTHS, had withdrawal episodes, it deepened my depression, and made me feel inadequate and nervous all the time, went from a size 10 to a 2 (had no appetite). Finally succeeded in eliminating that poison out of my every cell, but depression got worse about three years later so I was convinced to take sertraline (Zoloft). Didn't work, but did have unfavorable effects so the psychiatric nurse practitioner also created a lengthy schedule (she told me it would take MONTHS, and it did). Took another 10 months of my life just dealing with getting sertraline out of my body, and it lingered and lingered, so much so that the NP created a "tincture" which the pharmacist gave me. Had to take drops in small amount of liquid, decreasing over time, until finally no more "whoosh" or bubble-bursting sounds in my ears, and it took another year after that for me to feel that I was in control again of my body again. SWORE OFF all antidepressants!

I agree with you about aiming to find solutions other than drugs, since evidently my system cannot tolerate ANY antidepressants (yes, I had been prescribed others eons ago, before the Effexor episodes, and each gave me serious problems, so each is listed in my medical history as "Do Not Prescribe"). I can't take morphine, codeine, tramadol, depakote, topamax, and several other meds, which makes it difficult when I've needed pain meds following surgeries or procedures. I'm not a martyr and am no fan of pain, but I also do NOT want to be a zombie either.

I have read so many posts here on this site, where people are doing their own "weaning" or stopping cold-turkey. I so do not agree with either path.
Effexor is a potent, tenacious, and not totally understood drug.
Seek medical guidance if you want to get off it.
That has been my experience, and I never want to go on that path again. I definitely would not have upped the dosage during weaning just to avoid the effects that people have described.

I wish them luck, and may they find the peace that they seek, away from the jaws of Effexor and similar drugs.

I have to agree that Effexor should never have been approved, and should not be started for new people;, but I do hope it’s not taken off market. It’s would be horrific for those of us who are now on the hook with this nightmare.

YOU SAY I definitely would not have upped the dosage during weaning just to avoid the effects that people have described.
SO TRUE
THAT IS WHAT HAPPENED TO ME
THANK YOU

I love you!

Your post came to my rescue this morning.

I am in phase two of my recovery from psychiatric medications: feeling all of the feelings I've not dealt with while drugged into a state of walking coma.

Some mornings the grief over having lost/destroyed everyone and anything that ever mattered to me threatens to overwhelm me. Today was just such a day.

All the suffering I have experienced and caused, seems so pointless. I often think it would have been better if they had just shot me.

Then I read your post and the post of other suffering souls on this godsend of a bulletin board and I think, "maybe I can salvage something from the wreckage that is my life"!

Thank you and to everyone who takes the time to post.

I feel a little less alone!

There is a path out of the horror.

I have had to become a thorn in the side of my doctors.

Armed with information I have had to insist that they address my concerns.

I believe most healthcare professionals care deeply, they have simply been caught in the same system that continues to try to take my life.

Whether it was fear that I would kill myself on their watch, a desire to help or a little bit of both, when pushed my providers stepped up and listened.

I have to remember that what I proposed and is now becoming a reality threatens the very basis on which most providers have built their belief system.

If I have gotten better by stopping the medication that has been prescribed to me for fifteen years what are the ramifications?

Am I cured?
Was I misdiagnosed to begin with?
Am I simply a great actor with the will of Zeus?
Worse of all, how did they miss it?

None of these questions has an easy answer.

I believe I was misdiagnosed to begin with. Each subsequent doctor took one look at the previous doctor's actions and triaged me, until I ended up in the "won't make it, keep comfortable category".

Why no one ever bothered to do any research is simply another part of a tragically broken system.

I could forgive it all, except for what the "system" has done to my ex-wife and my children. When I think too much about it my rage rises to a level that could rip the Sun from the sky!

Instead I recommit, sometimes moment by moment, to doing everything in my power to shake the mental healthcare system to it foundations.

It gives me a reason to stay alive and keep fighting.

I hope everyone finds the peace they deserve.

You might be interested in this: https://www.madinamerica.com/2023/10/may-cause-side-effects-radical-acceptance-psychiatric-drug-withdrawal-brooke-siem/

Wow!

Thank you!

THANK YOU
THANK YOU